Jerusalem cop caught on tape pepper spraying detained leftist

[Violet_Crumble]

Haaretz has obtained a video that shows a police officer pepper spraying the face of a left-wing demonstrator detained during Friday's clashes in east Jerusalem.

The activist is Dr. Eyal Nir, a chemistry professor at Ben Gurion University, who claims that he was not resisting the policeman, with whom he is seen arguing. Nir was later taken to a hospital on Friday for treatment for his eye, from the pepper spray, and for a dislocated shoulder, which happened during a scuffle with police.

Jerusalem police say the footage has been edited in a manner to reflect badly on the officers.

"You don't see what happened beforehand," said Chief Superintendent Shmuel Ben-Ruby, the Jerusalem police spokesman. "There was an exceptionally violent demonstration. We don't just beat protestors - the fact is the last demonstrations passed quietly."

Six Israel Police officers were lightly wounded and 21 left-wing activists were arrested Friday during the demonstration in the capital's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

The demonstrators were protesting the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1134512.html

[Ken Burch]

1. A cop is a cop

In the end, they all fight against the people.

[TexasProgresive]

2. It's really great that there is all this video evidence

but who uses tape?

[Violet_Crumble]

3. That's what mobile phones are for...

Except if yr like me and have a first generation iphone and then it just sucks when you want to film things like a massive duststorm rolling in over the mountains and everyone else in the office is doing just fine filming it coz they waited till the next bunch of iphones came out that could do videos....

[TexasProgresive]

4. I was just commenting on how we use words that don't have

their original meaning. No body uses video tape and film except for movie makers, but we still say things like "film at 11," or police beating caught on tape. Even though video tape and film are becoming dinosaurs our old ways of thinking still prevail.

[azurnoir]

5. What struck me was how similar the "explanations "

were to another incident caught on tape

An Israeli human rights group released video footage last night showing an Israeli soldier firing a rubber-coated bullet at close range at a Palestinian man who had already been detained, blindfolded and cuffed.

The Palestinian, who had been involved in a demonstration in the occupied West Bank village of Nil'in on July 7, was injured in the toe by the shooting. He was treated by army medics and released, according to the rights group, B'Tselem.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/21/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast

but I remember accusations of the tape being doctored and you didn't see what really happened ect